Seared hand dived Scallop from the outer Hebrides, bonito butter, herring roe

Peter McKenna

Peter McKenna

20th February 2019
Peter McKenna

Seared hand dived Scallop from the outer Hebrides, bonito butter, herring roe

When we are able to get hold of large scallops, we like to serve them simply with a sauce to embellish them.

Sometimes we swap the smokey bonito with a mackerel stock made from the smoked bones.

The herring roe brings an almost peppery brine to the dish and works perfectly with the sweet nutty roasted scallop.

Ingredients

  • 4 scallops in the shell
  • 300ml bonito stock
  • 250g unsalted butter
  • 30g herring roe
  • 1g xanthan gum
  • Neutral oil for cooking
  • Unsalted butter for cooking
  • Lemon
  • Sea salt

Method

To prepare the scallops, shuck them, discard the skirt and sack, trim the roe and scallop muscle.
Keep the bottom half of the shell , boil in water for 10 minutes, store for serving.
Wash and pat dry ensuring no grit or silt is left on the flesh, refrigerate.
To make the brine, for every 100ml water add 6 g salt, dissolve the salt by heating the liquid, cool before adding the scallops.
Brine for 15 minutes, then rinse under cold water and dry before storing in the refrigerator until cooking.
To make the bonito butter sauce, bring the stock to the boil.
Dice the chilled butter into small cubes.
Add the butter to the stock whisking continuously, when all the butter is combined add the xanthan gum and whisk vigorously.
Zest half the lemon and to the sauce, season with fresh lemon juice and salt.
Leave to stand for 10 mins then pass.
Cook the scallop in a hot pan with the neutral oil until starting to colour, add some cubes of diced butter and bring to foaming stage, baste the scallops in the foaming butter added more chilled butter when required, cook until still opaque in the centre.
Rest for a minute before serving.
Blend enough sauce for four shells with a hand blender add the roe after then the scallops, serve.
Serve in the shell, if you like, a bowl would work suitable well also.

In these challenging times…

The Staff Canteen team are taking a different approach to keeping our website independent and delivering content free from commercial influence. Our Editorial team have a critical role to play in informing and supporting our audience in a balanced way. We would never put up a paywall and restrict access – The Staff Canteen is open to all and we want to keep bringing you the content you want; more from younger chefs, more on mental health, more tips and industry knowledge, more recipes and more videos. We need your support right now, more than ever, to keep The Staff Canteen active. Without your financial contributions this would not be possible.

Over the last 12 years, The Staff Canteen has built what has become the go-to platform for chefs and hospitality professionals. As members and visitors, your daily support has made The Staff Canteen what it is today. Our features and videos from the world’s biggest name chefs are something we are proud of. We have over 500,000 followers across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other social channels, each connecting with chefs across the world. Our editorial and social media team are creating and delivering engaging content every day, to support you and the whole sector - we want to do more for you.

A single coffee is more than £2, a beer is £4.50 and a large glass of wine can be £6 or more.

Support The Staff Canteen from as little as £1 today. Thank you.